Geometric Models of Cleaning Screws of Disc Diggers of Root Gathering Machines
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: A significant problem of the sugar beet harvesting process, as the most expensive component of the entire technology, is the contamination of the root crop heap with soil, especially when machines operate on hard (over 4.0–4.5 MPa) soils, when the number of unexcavated root crops increases sharply to 13–15% and up to 40% of the root crops are dug up damaged, especially due to impact stresses. In addition, under such difficult harvesting conditions, a significant amount of fertile soil is removed from the fields in the form of lumps. Obviously, an important national economic problem of preserving soil fertility arises, which can be solved by cleaning the heap of excavated root crops directly in the field, i.e. by primary cleaning of the root crops during the work of the diggers. Another equally important problem that arises during the processing of raw sugar is the contamination of the root crop pile with the remains of tops and weeds. It has been established that the physical contamination of the collected root crops in excess of the regulatory indicators of state standards for their processing negatively affects the quality of raw sugar, because foreign impurities and root crops that are severely damaged, including by diseases and pests, interfere with the extraction of sugar. In general, with prolonged factory storage (more than 60 days) of root crops that are severely damaged and contaminated with soil and plant residues, the condition of the raw material significantly deteriorates due to damage by root rot, and sugar losses increase rapidly. According to Dr. of Agriculture and G. Science Ionitsa Yu.S. Each percent of green mass on root crops leads to a decrease in the quality of the diffusion juice by 0.4–0.5% and an increase in the sugar content in molasses by 0.1%. Therefore, the development of a device for the primary cleaning of the dug pile of root crops, built into the digger scheme, is relevant. The article, based on the results of experimental studies, establishes that the use of helicoidal working surfaces of augers under conditions of increased soil hardness provides a significant reduction in the contamination of dug root crops with clods of earth and green mass residues and the number of damaged root crops compared to the serial biter cleaner of a disk digger. Experimental samples of diggers with helicoidal augers have been tested in a pilot farm and accepted for implementation at PJSC "BOREX".
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4408205120